Speaker: Dr Joanna Collingwood, Warwick Engineering in Biomedicine, School of Engineering, University of Warwick
Synopsis: The use of structural MRI to assess brain iron has particular relevance if it can detect the changing patterns of iron deposition that occur in neurodegenerative disorders. Presently, MRI techniques to measure tissue iron are better established for liver than for brain. One particular challenge for brain iron analysis is validation. MRI measurement of liver iron is directly validated with tissue iron content; however, for human brain, validation of the relationship between MRI parameters and iron is highly dependent on prior-published post-mortem analyses.
This seminar will illustrate the anticipated value of brain iron imaging with post-mortem evidence from Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy cases. I will also introduce methods that we have developed to directly validate the relationship between brain iron distribution and MRI parameters in post-mortem tissue, along with results from our recent evaluation of regional brain iron distribution in healthy volunteers which confirms a strong linear relationship between MRI relaxation parameters and tissue iron concentration in the iron-richest regions of the brain.
Biography: Joanna trained in Physics at the Universities of York (MPhys) and Warwick (PhD), and subsequently specialized in the areas of trace metals analysis, high resolution imaging, and neurodegenerative disorders. After a period at Keele University (UK) and University of Florida (UK), during which she held research fellowships from the Alzheimer's Society, Dunhill Medical Trust, EPSRC, and RCUK, she was appointed to a lectureship in the School of Engineering at University of Warwick, and is presently an Associate Professor. She has established links at international facilities including the Argonne National Laboratories (USA), the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (USA), and the Diamond Light Source synchrotron (Oxford, UK) where she chaired the synchrotron user committee from its formation, and served as the UK representative for the European Synchrotron Users Organization. Joanna founded and co-leads the Warwick Medical Imaging Network, and serves on the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Advisory Panel for Public Engagement and the Alzheimer’s Society Biomedical Grant Advisory Board.
Refreshments available from 12.45pm